Perspective
by AngelPines
Summary: Sometimes, all it takes is having someone to listen. Takes place before the epilogue of Bending Reality.


**Disclaimer: Been a while, hasn't it? Since we've heard anything from Kate and company. I am still planning on a sequel, that is still a thing. However, I am waiting for when Dark Revival gets posted. Anything that I can add that belongs to the game would help develop ideas further. I would like to think that means chapter 1 will come out this or next month. From there, it shouldn't be more than a few days before I get something started... hopefully.**

**This one shot takes place between Kate's return home, and the epilogue of the story.**

**I don't own Bendy and the Ink Machine.**

"Speaking"

_Thinking_

* * *

"Oh, Bendy? Get down here, will ya? I got something I want to show you!" _Come on, I know you can move faster than that. _"Bendy!"

How long had it been now? A week, maybe. I was starting to get the slightest bit annoyed at the living conditions I now found myself to be in. For one, there was the fact that to the rest of the world, outside of these walls, I was... well...

Dead.

I mean, how could everyone not think that? As far as anyone outside of my family knew, which only meant Joey Drew, I had gone missing and had never returned. I couldn't just waltz outside the house like I was, without a way to cover my arms, my head, and mask my eyes. Blood, I wasn't sure I had any. There was so much... not right, with how I was, that staying around the property and in the house was the safest option. Fortunately, and unfortunately, that also included Allison, Tom, and Bendy.

They were making due, but even I knew that they couldn't handle the isolation forever. The four of us couldn't. What would happen then, when that moment arrived? _It's best... not to think on it. _"What did ya find?" Said demon hopped down the stairs, spinning around the end of the railing to greet me and the large pile of tapes on the floor. "Uh... Kate?"

"Dad found some of the older cartoons, including some half-finished ones that the studio never aired." I held up the closest tape, giving it a wave. The writing on the peeling label was worn with age, but without a doubt, was dad's handwriting. "Wanna check some out with me?"

"I dunno... wouldn't it be more fun to watch with someone else?" He was playing hard to get, toying with the idea to annoy me. _Bendy, seriously? I know you want to watch them._

"Mom's at work, dad and Tom are out back working on the lawn, and Allison... I think she's doing more research." Research, as in she was busying herself in reading mom's large book collection while also using the computer next to it. With almost all of her memories wiped, she wanted to learn as much about her current world as she could. What had changed, what had happened to her former self as far as the rest of the world knew. Anything. "Please, Bendy?" It was hard to distract myself too, with stuff around the house. Drawing was still a hobby I enjoyed; cooking, and cleaning. Gardening, too. But without my job as an artist, watching people's faces light up when I handed them their request, I didn't have much to do anymore. Reviewing tapes was just a brief moment where I could do something different outside of everything else, and I wanted someone else to join me.

"Aw... fine. You twisted my ankle, kid." He stepped around the tapes, a movement almost like a tap dance, and sat down on the floor next to me, a few feet away from the television. "Which one do ya wanna run first?"

"I'm just checking to see if any of them are worth keeping. Anything too damaged will get tossed out." There were some tapes that only had the ending damaged, the picnic one coming to mind, but the rest of the footage was decent enough to keep. _He never did fix that tape. Huh. _"Let's run this one first, and go from there."

I shuffled forward across the floor, and began to press the buttons on the set to get it started. Inserting the tape after switching sources, I hopped back beside Bendy to watch the show. The familiar tune of a Bendy cartoon filled the living room, and the title card flashed across the screen in black and white. "Cheap Seats, eh? Haven't seen that one in a while," Bendy commented. A small note of distaste was in his words, and I rose a brow.

"Something wrong with it?" I asked, my clawed hands resting in my lap.

"Nah. Not so much the show, as who stars in it." The Bendy on the screen walked merrily down a street, a pep to his step that my friend didn't really have. In fact, when thinking over the cartoons from my childhood, the real thing was far from what I had grown up seeing. _Not that it's a bad thing. _A piece of paper blew into his face, knocking the demon backwards. Reading the poster, and seeing that it was announcing a movie playing that night, the grin lit up even further. He hurried to the phone on the pole near him, hurrying in his number punches to ring in Boris.

Boris. He was almost always asleep or with food in the cartoons. He didn't get into much trouble, unlike Bendy, who was a magnet for it. He snored away peacefully, until the ringing of the phone beside him woke him up from his nap. Picking it up, Bendy's hand smacked his nose, sticking out of the phone and holding the poster for him to read. With a displeased grunt, Boris shoved Bendy's hand back in and hung up, swiftly returning to his slumber.

"These cartoons really liked picking on you," I said, glancing at the tearful Bendy, fingers crinkling the poster as he sat on the sidewalk.

"Heh. Tell me something I don't know." That was another thing. Did Bendy have the memories of all the cartoons he stared in? Or did he only know about some because of what was left in the studio? Abandoned reels, forgotten sketches. It was a nightmare of a building, without a doubt, but... a sliver of my mind was still fascinated with what they were able to achieve. Without Joey Drew, my dad wouldn't have landed a job with the city's paper, and he wouldn't have met my mom, and I wouldn't have been born.

A finger tapped Bendy's shoulder, and he looked up to find none other than Alice Angel looking down at him, offering a sweet smile and giving a slight giggle. "Hello!" Bendy sprung to his feet, eager at the sight of the new person. He pointed at her, and then further down the street, where the theater was possibly located. "Of course, I'll go!"

"So, is this Susie, or Allison speaking?" I turned to the Bendy next to me, not paying much attention to the cartoon anymore, only enough to catch Bendy dragging Alice down the street, flying in the air behind him like a banner. _Heh._

"... I think it's Susie?" He didn't seem confident in his choice. We weren't paying attention to it anymore, and the cartoon ended without us. His enjoyment had all but fizzled away, and I frowned at the change in attitude.

"Bendy, if... if you don't mind me asking, how aware was Alice-Susie of your existence? Before you revealed your presence to me during those errands she wanted me to do?" I inched forward again, and began to rewind the tape before ejecting it.

His grin soured further. _I should've played a different cartoon. Definitely. _"She... I'm guessin' she knew fairly quickly. When everything came to a stop-the experiments, the kidnappings, the... well, you know. I started comin' a little more out into the open. Not to the point he caught wind of me, though, heh, he tried. Mostly, I stayed in the shadows and ink, wherever he wasn't. She never saw me, as far as I'm aware of, but Alice must've been aware. Whether she could tell it was me or him, hard to say, really." He crossed his arms, head turning to avoid looking at me. "Lot of stuff I'd rather forget."

I didn't put in another tape when I took it out, and turned off the television before turning around. _Bendy. _There was... one thing, that came out of the closeness of the new world I lived in. Dad had brought a spare mattress and dropped it off in my room. A small one, lacking a frame that had been donated ages ago. A bed from when I was younger, tucked away in the corner of my room for the small toon. And with him and I sharing space, I came to learn a little more about the demon, bit by bit. Stories, hints of his past he would tell me, when I struggled to sleep. Not every night, and not all night, but several times I awoke to nightmares. Of an ax hanging over my head, of claws aimed to rip out my throat, of a massive maw filled with rotting fangs... so, so many images. Of memories from those days beneath the surface, surrounded by blackness.

Silently, I pushed the rest of the tapes out of the way, resting the warm one in my hand on the floor and shuffled back towards him. Resting a hand on his shoulder, far enough down that it didn't dip underneath the small space where his head floated, I gave a small smile. "Hey... whatever happened down there-there's a lot we want to forget. All of us have seen and been through some... pretty messed up stuff." I sighed, my other hand reaching back to run through the few loose strands of black hair that stuck out of my braid, that curled around my inky horns. "Bendy, you don't have to tell me everything that went on down there. To be honest, I don't think I wanna know. But... if you ever need someone to talk to, I'm ready to listen."

Bendy didn't move his head, but his eye-the one free of the patch still worn over his damaged one-shifted in my direction. Slowly, his head spun to face me, and the grin brightened, ever so slightly. "... you really are somethin' else, you know that? Been through hell, and you still got such a cheerful outlook."

"You can blame that on dad." I pulled back my hand, and his smile finally matched my own. "Now then, do you want to throw in another tape?"

"That depends. Can we burn the ones that we can't keep?" _Burn them? _I blinked, my glowing eyes reflecting my confusion until I started to laugh. "Burn-ha ha! Y-yeah! Sure, we can!" I reached over and scooped up a new tape, giving it a shake. "Let's get started!"

Things were different now. Were they better when I was still fully human? Honestly... with how close we were now as a family, the mended relationship I had with my mom, and the addition of my new friends... I would say yes. Hard to get used to, and it would be a long time to fully accept it, but I still stood by my decision to enter the studio. "Heheh." Wrapping an arm around Bendy, the two of us eagerly watched the new title screen run across the screen. _I wouldn't change a thing._

* * *

**So to conclude, Kate's story will continue once more information about the game comes out. It'd be a short sequel, but I still have some stuff that needs to be wrapped up with her. Specifically, her interaction with one Joey Drew. Don't want him to be forgotten just yet. Though, how to incorporate him and Dark Revival is still something I'm trying to figure out.**

**Until next time!**

**Angel**


End file.
